#SPOTY – Has It Lost It’s Appeal?

London, UK

For the first time in many years I decided not to watch the BBC Sports Personality of The Year last night (although I’m delighted for Mark Cavendish who won this years title). I did this for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Spurs v Chelsea was on Sky Sports and secondly, and more importantly, there were no women short-listed in this years competiton as Dr Gloria Moss highlights in her piece at Huffington Post.

Tonight will decide the winner of this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year. You might think that with a 27-strong jury, the list would be a fair reflection of Britain’s greatest sporting talent. However, the absence of any women on the list has already raised eyebrows and findings from research I have just conducted points a finger at the culprit. Men’s obsession with men.

The shortlist was compiled by 27 all-male sports editors from magazines and daily and Sunday newspapers and there is no mention here of the likes of World 800m swimming champion Rebecca Adlington, Jessica Ennis or Sarah Stevenson. The research I have just conducted with Dr Gabor Horvath, Senior Lecturer in International Business and Marketing of the University of Glamorgan Business School, shows how little women feature in men’s minds and, in this sense, how unlikely any alternative result will be.